Southern supporters were afraid that if a statehood bill for California was passed first, then northerners would refuse to pass the other parts of the compromise.

VOA: special.2009.04.02

Well, apparently Richard in real life did not refuse to make those changes. And imagine, in a book that then undergoes this publishing history that I have described, this is kind of a symbolic scene.

很明显，现实生活中的理查,并没有拒绝那些修改,想像一下，经历上述出版过程的一本书，这是象征性的场景。

耶鲁公开课 - 1945年后的美国小说课程节选

The Athenians refuse to tolerate Socrates because they know he is not harmless, that he poses a challenge, a fundamental challenge to their way of life and all that they hold to be noble and worthwhile.

雅典人拒绝容忍苏格拉底,因为他们明白他并非无害，他公然挑衅，社会本质的生活方式,及他们视为崇高及值得的观念。

耶鲁公开课 - 政治哲学导论课程节选

A free-rider might refuse to donate money but still enjoys watching the programs.

VOA: special.2009.03.03

He demanded that first, the Palestinians must recognize Israel as a Jewish state, something they refuse to do.

VOA: standard.2009.04.17

"If senators refuse to debate about a profound crisis affecting every single citizen, the nation must ask 'What do you fear?' ,'And whose voice do you speak and whose interest do you vote?" Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky disagreed, saying the bill will make soaring health care costs go even higher, and place a greater burden on average Americans.

VOA: standard.2009.11.23

Roger Smith,a co-founder of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, says many Turks refuse to use the word 'genocide.' "I worked with some Turkish scholars and these are people who would be considered liberals and so on - but even they really kind of shy away from using the word 'genocide.' They will talk about massacres - you lay all of these things out and they say yeah,yeah,yeah, this happened,okay - well no,I don't want to use that word.

VOA: standard.2010.03.19